Bad Days for Jack
by Charon the Sabercat
Summary: A loose sheepdog and a pinch of bad luck make the worst day of Jack's afterlife. R&R I'm back! Hello! Did you miss me! doesn't get a response Oh...


'Cause I Felt Like Writing It  
  
This is so stupid; just a bunch of things that will ensure Jack a bad day. Oiy-ya. I've got nothing against him personally, but I'm HIGH ON CHOCOLATE GRANOLA BARS AND I'M READY TO START A CHASE SEQUENCE! LET'S GO!  
  
"WOAH!"  
  
Jack was greeted as he left his mansion by an unfamiliar dog jumping on his and pushing him back into the house and onto his back end. He looked up at the strange intruder with a scrutinizing eye. "Who the-?" He didn't recognize the shaggy, dirty dog until a squeaking voice shouted out his name.  
  
"WILLIE!"  
  
"Oh, you." Jack sighed and relaxed, letting the live dog lick his jawbone as he fell back completely onto the floor. "And so, the living tormentor returns."  
  
Charon and Double F tried to squeeze into Jack's door at the same time, but only succeeded in wedging themselves in. The began to apologize at once, and although Jack couldn't make out all of it, it basically consisted of "Oh, Mr. Jack, we're so sorry! Willie just got off his chain, and-"  
  
"And so, the living tomentors return," Jack whispered to himself. He cleared his throat and shouted, "Girls, girls, it's okay! Just get him off me!"  
  
"Okay! (grunt, groan) Um."  
  
"Mr. Jack, we can't really get in the house."  
  
Jack clenched his fists and mumbled, "Girls, please back out of the door."  
  
Charon and Double F nodded (or rather, bowed; they were so infatuated with Japanese culture, they had adopted some of their habits) and backed away, not knowing what to expect.  
  
All of the sudden from within Jack's manor came this huge BARK that sent Willie flying out the door. Charon and Double F waisted no time in chasing after the dog.  
  
Jack stepped into the doorway and watched with a smirk as Willie ran out of the town gate, the two teens behind him. He smiled to himself and dusted off his hands. "And Mother said I would never use Werewolfian. Ha! Proved her wrong."  
  
&&&  
  
"And so, if you pull the garlands through here, it would- (KONK!) Ow! (KONK!) What the- (KONK! KONKY DEE KONK KOOK KONK!) Ow! LOCK! SHOCK! BARREL!"  
  
The Terrible Trio laughed from the ceiling rafters, and then dashed out of the town hall through a hole in the ceiling which only they and a few gargoyles could reach. Jack pulled out one of the rocks they had thrown at him from his eye socket and tried to hit them back, but it missed and broke through a window.  
  
Jack stared with his mouth open as the Mayor audibly switched to his worried face. "Um, Jack? You broke it."  
  
"I know," he breathed, shaking his head. "I know. If I were just a few years younger, I could have hit them, too. It's because I'm getting older, I know it! I'm old! I'm Old!"  
  
Jack shuffled out of the Mayor's line of vision, mumbling something about a mid-death crisis.  
  
&&&  
  
Jack was just stepping out of Town Hall as Sadir, the werewolf, rushed past with a wheelbarrow. Actually, he didn't really rush past Jack; he rushed Over Jack, flattening him against the pavement.  
  
The Pumpkin King raised his head to see why Sadir had just run him over when another set of paws pushed his head back down: Willie.  
  
"That dog," he growled, punching the ground. "I am going to kill him- wait, if I kill him, I'll have to put up with him forever! On second thought, I'll leave him with Charon."  
  
&&&  
  
Jack walked in between a snarling Sadir and Willie and he was heading to Dr. Finklestien's tower, his head darting back and forth between the Halloween native and the stranger from the "Real" world.  
  
He pondered for a moment, and finally decided, "No. I'm not getting in the middle of this on-"  
  
"WILLIE!"  
  
Jack's eyes burst open and began to widen. "Oh good forces in Heaven help me, it's Charon's mother."  
  
Charon's mother stomped into view, holding Willie's red leash and wearing a sour expression. "You ignorant werewolf, you lay one paw on my dog, and there will be-"  
  
"You can't get between two fighting dogs!" Sadir snarled, pointing a finger. "It's against the Code of Canus!"  
  
Jack waved his hand, hoping to be noticed by either party. "Um. hello?"  
  
"Why don't you get back to your litter box, Cat?"  
  
"Go eat a boot, Doggy Boy!"  
  
Charon's mother and Sadir lunged at eachother, claws and teeth ready, with poor Jack in the middle.  
  
"Uh oh-"  
  
"WOOF!"  
  
"ROAR!"  
  
CRUNCH!  
  
&&&  
  
"Just one more hour or two of work, and I can go home and relax," Jack coaxed himself, fixing his head back onto his neck. "Sally will be back from picking pumpkins, and everything will be fine-"  
  
"Um, Jack?"  
  
Jack stopped abruptly and snarled, recognizing the nasal tones of Shock. "Yes, Shock?"  
  
"Um." It was Lock talking this time. "We're kind of stuck-"  
  
"In a tree." Barrel finished.  
  
Jack turned around and saw Boogie's Boys sitting on a branch, apparently one they had used to escape Town Hall earlier. "And just what do you expect me to do?"  
  
"Get us down?"  
  
"Can't argue with a child's logic, now, can you?" Jack relented and nimbly jumped up and onto the children's branch, ready to carry them off.  
  
Snitch-  
  
"What was that?" Jack gasped.  
  
The children grinned widely and jumped back onto Town Hall building. "SIKE!"  
  
"What the-"  
  
SNAP!  
  
CRASH!  
  
"(groan)."  
  
&&&  
  
The Pumpkin King, tired, beaten, and bruised, slammed the door behind him, scaring Sally and making her drop the few flowers she was arranging. "Sally! Oh, I'm sorry!"  
  
"It's okay," Sally picked up the flowers as Jack started to rant.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Sally, it's just that I've had a really hard day! First thing this morning, I got tackled full force by Charon's big sheepdog-"  
  
"You mean that one that tried to eat us," Sally placed the words to a face. "-that one time when we shrunk?"  
  
"Willie, yes," Jack groaned. "Like I haven't heard that name enough today. Anyway, I got tackled by Willie, and then Lock, Shock, and Barrel pelted me with rocks while I was setting up plans with the Mayor-"  
  
"Ouch."  
  
"Yes, I know, I was THERE!" Jack was beginning to grow very angry with all the interruptions. "And then, as I was leaving Town Hall, Sadir runs me over with his wheelbarrow, getting chased by, WHO ELSE, that stupid sheepdog! Not to mention that I got caught right in the middle of a fight between a werewolf and whatever Charon's mother is, got my head knocked off, and that God-forsaken Willie snatched my head and ran off with it, tried to bury it in Zero's grave! And THEN Lock, Shock, and Barrel were "stuck" in a tree a tree and I (no I-DEA what I was thinking then) climb up to go get them, and they jumped off the branch and it fell beneath my feet!"  
  
Jack paused to breathe, the anger visibly leaving him and leaving Sally with a light ring in her ears. "And now my entire day has been ruined by three kids and a dog, and everything's gone all wrong and the day can't get any worse-"  
  
Sally stepped directly in front of Jack, watching him as he put a hand on the back of his skull and massaged it. "And I don't see how anything could make it better."  
  
Sally shook her head in disagreement and threw her arms around Jack, hugging him tightly. It caught him by surprise, to be sure, but he loosened up and hugged her back. It was as if a candle was burning in his chest; he felt warm and soft, as if a light were cutting through an emotional cement that had collected in his ribs throughout the day. "Well, okay, maybe not anything."  
  
Cute moral: A hug from a friend can make any bad day better.  
  
Funny moral: Never let a sheepdog run loose in a town with a skeleton man and werewolves, lest you face the wrath of the owner. 


End file.
